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Clare GAA secretary Pat Fitzgerald with chairman Joe Cooney (right). Photograph by John Kelly.

Gardaí Investigating Online Abuse of Clare County Board Officials


CLARE GAA county board have asked an Garda Síochána to launch an investigation into the online abuse directed at various county board officials, and in particular Clare GAA secretary Pat Fitzgerald.

According to reports in The Irish Independent, Joe Cooney, Clare county board chairman confirmed the complaint had been lodged with the Gardaí.

Cooney, in speaking to the Irish Independent said, “A complaint has been lodged with Clare GAA by an employee (Pat Fitzgerald). It arises from social media and what has been put up on it, not alone over the last couple of months but the last number of years.

“Other officers of Clare GAA have also been badly maligned on social media. It’s not good enough for people working as volunteers for the GAA whether at club or county level to be subjected to that. In fact, it’s a disgrace.

“It has been going with Pat for a while back, but other officers have been getting it very badly too over the last couple of weeks and months. We’ve handed it over to An Garda Síochána now and we want a thorough examination to be carried out to find out who’s behind it and put an end to it,” said Cooney.

It is understood that one of the main sources of the abuse is the CLARE CLARE CLARE Facebook page, that has since been removed, and is one of the chief social media accounts that the county board want investigated.

This comes after members of the county board spoke out in the October county board meeting in which Brian Lohan was ratified as senior manager, saying the online abuse that certain employees and volunteers of Clare GAA had been subjected to in recent months was inexcusable and would be investigated.

The county board came under increased pressure during the protracted process of replacing Donal Moloney and Gerry O’Connor as senior managers.

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